Talk to anyone about youth gardens in Durham, and eventually the name “SEEDS” will be uttered. It’s simply one of the best programs going, when it comes to youth-oriented urban gardening.

So I’m thrilled that the George Watts PTA is collaborating with SEEDS on the school’s summer “Garden Giveaway Day” project, in which we harvest the George Watts garden and send produce home with families.

Today we welcomed Vianey Martinez of SEEDS to the George Watts garden.

Vianay is one of six go-get-‘em teens hand-picked by SEEDS leadership to work year-round in their gardens. And now she’s coming to the George Watts garden twice a week to harvest with students and run our farmers’ market-style “Garden Giveaway” veggie stand.

Ranked third in her class, Vianey is a rising junior at Southern High School. She’s involved in her school’s garden club and Future Business Leaders of America, is bilingual and completely fluent in all things planty. Today, as we harvested, she shared English and Spanish gardening vocabulary words with the students enrolled in GROW.

We were floored by the number of ripe vegetables in the garden this week — the most squash yet (including the giant one pictured below), a mass of cucumbers, basil and tomatoes, which we tasted right on the spot.

Picked today: One giant squash, dubbed "Monster Squash."

We have so many cucumbers growing, they form "patches."

Vianey’s goal is to one day combine her love of math (economics) with her love of agriculture. Her future looks bright. Vianey, thanks for sharing a little bit of your knowledge and passion with our students!

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We were lucky to have Duke student Morgan Carney with us last semester. Morgan did a photojournalism project (http://wondersofwatts.com/grow-watts-grow/) on our school’s garden-and-cooking project for a class she takes at Duke University. Her professor, Susie Post Rust, is a George Watts parent. The end result speaks for itself.

Two-bean kale soup. Brussels sprouts with caramelized shallots. Sweet potatoes with cinnamon pepita seeds. Gingerbread with skillet apples. That’s what was on the menu for the Harvest Mini-Feast at George Watts Montessori. And pre-K through 5th grade students cooked it ALL.

I remember that when I was in middle school, my Home Ec teacher taught me to change a diaper. She also taught me how to sew an apron using a sewing machine. I’m pretty sure there were no boys in that class. It all sounds so terribly old-fashioned and sexist now, really. But in that class, I also learned how to cook.

This is a story about the amazing ripple effect that a single person can have. Last year, a parent (not me!) of a Primary student in Ms. Baker’s class offered to help out by taking the students outside to the Edible Garden every week. The plan grew: The parent decided she may as well plan a string of lessons for the students to do outside. This is what the garden looked like on one of her volunteer days.

I just created a presentation about the evolution of our school garden at George Watts Montessori. (I can’t wait to tell you why I was doing that, but that will have to wait for another post.) To show what we’ve accomplished, I delved into the 5 biggest ways the garden has contributed to the students’ health and academics.